Insurance agent by day and costumed country star by night, Brent Amaker of Brent Amaker and the Rodeo is something of an enigma. A Southerner in Seattle who channels the classic country spirit while at the same time subverting its tropes, owing as much to the persona-led art rock of Bowie and co. as the macho (so-called) authenticity of the genre’s heavy hitters. “We’re cowboys, living the spirit of the West,” Amaker explains. “We’re not really playing country music, but we’re playing cowboy music. ‘Western performance art’ is what I like to say.” Out early next year on Killroom Records, new album Philaphobia feels like the culmination of this spirit, and single ‘Take It By The Horns’ shows off the project’s infectiously energetic side. Watch the video directed and edited by Sean Downey below:

Philaphobia is out on the 26th January via Killroom Records.

Cool Planet – Don’t Forget to Lock the Door

“A love letter to my tape machine.” That’s how Samuel Szigeti describes Everything on the Floor, the new release from the Cool Planet project. Finding the device discarded at a part time job, Szigeti experimented with the technology and in many ways followed its lead, crafting songs full of nostalgic heart. Single ‘Don’t Forget to Lock the Door’ shows off just how warm and comforting the style can be, conjuring the sense of fond calm unique to crepuscular half-dark. The kind of mood found on “a late summer evening, walking home from work through the park,” as Szigeti puts it, “the lights in the baseball diamond are turning on as the sky goes from blue to orange.”

Everything on the Floor is out now and available via streaming services.

Drench Fries – Poolside

The solo project of Seattle-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Levi Nattrass, Drench Fries first caught our attention last year with the cool pop of ‘Out My Window’. “Think classic country regret made hazy by the sea mist of the West Coast,” as we put it, “with dollops of indie rock fuzz and playful pop synths adding an idiosyncratic charm.” Following successful nights sharing the stage with the likes of Pinegrove and Katy Kirby, Nattrass decided it was time to loosen his grip on the project and invite others to collaborate. New single ‘Poolside’ is the first taste of this newly communal form of Drench Fries. A bright, upbeat pop song which opens up on close listens to grapple with almost existential themes.

Layperson – Massive Leaning

Grief as an elemental force. That’s the theme behind Massive Leaning, the latest album from Portland, OR‘s Layperson on Lung Records. Led by Julian Morris and supported by Barra Brown, Steven Skolnik, Sam Wenc, Alex Fermanis and Tyler Neidermayer, the project straddles the line between country and pop, and its moods are equally fluid. An attempt to communicate from within the aftermath of a painful loss, where the possibility of new beginnings is always challenged by an overwhelming despair. As the title track suggests, Morris sits with these competing emotions and thus transcends the traditional break-up album. Not only mourning what is lost or pining for its return, but appreciating the wonder which can fill the gap if only you let it.

L E M F R E C K – After

Hailing from Newport and now based in Cardiff, L E M F R E C K is an artist and producer who casts a wide net for inspiration. Growing up, he played for gospel artists while honing his tastes with the likes of Ghetts and Kano, before immersing himself in the pirate grime scene across Wales and Bristol. His work now wears this rich variety proudly, drawing on both underground and mainstream influences to become something entirely his own. Take single ‘After’ from new release Blood, Sweat & Fears, which might open as a trap number but soon deepens into a smooth slice of R&B that hints towards a hauntological nostalgia.

Blood, Sweat & Fears is out now via Noctown and available from the usual places.

Montañera – A Flor de Piel

Montañera‘s album A Flor de Piel is a lesson in exploration and self-discovery. Writing on previous singles ‘Un Día Voy a Ser Mariposa‘ and ‘Tú – El Borde de Mi Arista‘, we’ve been struck by the manner in which the London-based Colombian artist is able to conjure such diverse spaces within their work. Soundscapes which seem to travel great distances while mapping interiority, and blur the distinction between reality and dreams, all while eschewing any genre conventions. With the album now out via Western Vinyl, we thought we’d share the title track as final proof of this ability. A song which draws on traditional Japanese sounds to offer a mission statement for the record. To find that light inside, and in full memory of the generations which came before, allow oneself to be born anew.

A Flor De Piel is out now via Western Vinyl and you can get it from the Montañera Bandcamp page.

Night Teacher – Comfort

A collaboration between multi-media artist/singer-songwriter Lilly Bechtel, and drummer/writer/producer Matt Wyatt, Night Teacher introduced their blend of doom folk and electro pop back in 2020 with their self-titled debut album—a collection of songs which delved deep into grief to to hope and despair simultaneously. New EP Dear Ellen builds upon this aesthetic and pushes into an increasingly dreamy atmosphere. Take single ‘Comfort’ with its organic ambient textures, all led by Bechtel’s ethereal delivery. The opening is like a dreamy field recording, swaying in the breeze behind bubbling birdsong, before guitar tumbles in gently and Bechtel’s voice enters with warm but sober sincerity.

Dear Ellen is out now and available from the usual places.

Shaina Hayes – New Favourite

Sometimes your parents know best, as typified by Quebecois artist Shaina Hayes. “My folks always wanted me to be a musician,” Hayes explains, “so for me, rebelling meant getting a degree in agricultural science!” But seeing as next February sees the release of her second album Kindergarten Heart on Bonsound, it seems rebellion didn’t stick. Lead single ‘New Favourite’ shows just why we should be glad of the fact, a folk pop track as playful as it is evocative, owing as much to Feist as Hank Williams in the way it paints the excitingly volatile pull of new love.

Oh, I remember the feeling
My feet on the ground
My heart in your soft hands
My head in the clouds

Will Gardner – Remains

Remains, the debut solo album from London-based composer and artist Will Gardner, is a record of abstract emotions grounded in physical reality. A picture of days spent caring for his father through late stages of Parkinson’s dementia, the songs not only bring to light the difficult realities of the process, but push further into the intangible sensations of losing something so familiar so gradually, mourning that which has not yet passed away. Closing the album, the title track encapsulates the release, built around diary entries written by Gardner’s father, fragments of texts which were used to as scaffolding before being removed, leaving just the rhythms and melodies they inspired.

The post Weekly Listening: November 2023 #3 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Eli Frank is something of a fixture of the New York DIY scene, playing in the likes of Teenage Halloween, Punt and Winnebago Vacation. Latest project Bummer Camp is their first solo venture, an outlet for layered songs crafted from the basic ingredients of guitar, drum machine and loop pedal. Bummer Camp has just released its second EP, Big Deal, a record Frank says “tackles both the everyday and the everlasting impact of striving to create something meaningful.” Single ‘It’s a Pain’ is a good introduction, beginning as a taut indie pop song before exploding in cathartic noise in the final third.

Watch the video by multimedia artist Preston Spurlock below:

Big Deal is out now and available from the Bummer Camp Bandcamp page.

Diamond Grinder – Let Me Live with You

Back in June, New York‘s Diamond Grinder released their full-length Expectations via Perpetual Doom, an album which introduced the long-time (if intermittent) collaboration between songwriters Margaret Nygard and Eli Recht-Appel. Together with a huge, rotating cast of musicians, the pair create a folk-inflected brand of rock which manages to combine intimacy and dynamism, owing as much to seventies Americana as it does contemporaries such as Big Thief. Having just shared a new video directed and edited by Elizabeth Kroner for the slow-burning single ‘Let Me Live With You’, now’s the time to jump aboard the Diamond Grinder train if you missed it the first time around.

Expectations is out now via Perpetual Doom and you can get it from Bandcamp.

Duster – The Weed Supreme

Hot on the heels of the 25th Anniversary Edition of Stratosphere, slowcore royalty Duster have unveiled a collection of previously unreleased material, Remote Echoes, via The Numero Group. Or kind of unreleased, with some of the material having previously appeared on demo tapes Christmas Dust and On The Dodge. Single ‘The Weed Supreme’ gives an indication of what to expect, bathed in fuzz and possessing the trademark hushed vocals, proving so laidback so as to be almost horizontal.

Remote Echoes is out now via The Numero Group.

Family Man – FATHER JOHN

‘FATHER JOHN’, the latest single from Family Man, is an expose, an exorcism and an apology. Written about his experiences within LA’s private Catholic school system, lead Conner Root takes aim at both the callous dogma of conservative Christianity and the systems of privilege and white supremacy which underpins it. Family Man have made a name with their raw sound, but the intensely personal nature of this song breaks new ground. Years of toxicity and repression expelled with crushing force, castigating those who created such a reality, and making amends to the person inside Root who was waiting to live their life as it was meant to be.

‘FATHER JOHN’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Fortunato Durutti Marinetti – Clerk Of Oblivion

We previewed Eight Waves In Search Of An Ocean, the forthcoming album by Turin-born, Toronto-based Fortunato Durutti Marinetti on Quindi Records and Soft Abuse, back in September with single ‘Lightning On A Sunny Day‘. “An epic track that manages to weave real drama into its lazy sprawl,” as we put it, “evoking the titular image in its dreamlike blend of space and intensity.” The “poetic jazz rock” artist has now unveiled new track ‘Clerk Of Oblivion’, a song which turns its woozy electronic style towards the monolith of labour, sounding at once seething and stupefied, as though slowly whittled down by the weight of work. It uses the last few ounces of energy to try to communicate just how pointless and cruel the concept can be. “My only objective going into this song was to exorcize the spirit of Robert Wyatt’s The Age of Self, a major source of inspiration,” Marinetti explains. “But as usually happens, something else entirely formed.”

Half Stack – Cruisin USA

“The dusty cowboy aesthetic remains, but there’s more to Half Stack than that. Now they’re allowing their true spirit to shine through.” That’s how we described Sitting Pretty, the new album from the Oakland band on Forged Artifacts and Royal Oakie Records, in a preview earlier this summer. With this new freedom comes influences ranging from psych rock and power pop to honky tonk, and latest single ‘Cruisin USA’ taps into a little bit of everything to create a sound at once reflective and full of swagger. The dual vocals add a real chemistry too, and the result possesses an affirming spirit no matter how uncertain the lyrics might prove.

Laura Zarougian – Back To Piran

We’ve written about several singles from Nayri, the debut album from New York-based artist Laura Zarougian, recently, full of praise of her “one part Armenian cowgirl and one part indie rock” aesthetic. Now the album is out in the world, and we couldn’t help but feature one last song. A timeless slice of country, ‘Back To Piran’ is the record’s midpoint and an encapsulation of everything that’s good about it. A song full of longing and fragile strength, a commitment to remain connected to one’s heritage despite geographical distance. It’s a feeling far more genuinely American than any Hollywood cowboy. A ballad for diaspora everywhere.

Layperson – I Want To

The recording project of Portland, OR-based songwriter Julian Morris (Little Star, Post Moves), Layperson uses a welcoming folk rock sound to explore the strange contradictions of life. Next month’s new album Massive Leaning, a joint release by Lung Records and Bud Tapes, emerged in the aftermath of a break-up, though Morris consciously subverts the traditions of such records to offer a more nuanced picture. One where the vertiginous sense of loss and loneliness is in some way counterbalanced by a persistent hope. Take latest single ‘I Want To’, where Morris consciously refuses the temptation to return to familiar ground and instead opens his mind towards something different, and the buoyant sound comes to suggest a nascent spiritual awakening.

Baby, I want to
I want that feeling
The feeling that drives all the reasons
Baby I want to

Zoya Zafar – Tunnel Vision

Since the release of a self-titled EP back in 2013, Zoya Zafar has developed a delicate and often searching brand of folk music, probing into the uncertainties of relationships with equal parts vulnerability and strength. Produced by Gia Margaret, 2018 single ‘Sweet Talk’ saw Zafar’s sound evolve in an increasingly dreamy direction, something which carried through into this year’s ‘Wordz’. Her debut full-length album Some Songs is coming soon, and the Lahore-born, Orlando-based songwriter has unveiled latest single, ‘Tunnel Vision’ to further establish this sound. “True love / did it happen to be real love?” go the opening lines, “or just something to get through the night? / We don’t believe in paradise.” This confessional style is delivered on a pillowy arrangement, as though fragility and conviction are one and the same.

Tunnel Vision
I only see you
If I knew why,
It’d be the last thing that I’d do

The post Weekly Listening: October 2023 #2 appeared first on Various Small Flames.